Nachdem er seinen Führerschein bekommen hat, hat er sich sein Traumauto ausgesucht. Dieses War zufällig das Auto aus dem James Bond Film Octopussy. Dieses Bild ist für Dich, Bumpa!On Saturday we went to the Mercedes showroom and Alexander got his driver’s licence. First he went to school to learn the rules of the road.

Then he drove around for about an hour.

After receiving his driver’s licence, he picked out the car he’d like to have. This one just happened to be the one from the James Bond movie, Octopussy. This one’s for you, Dad!!

I remember when I was in the 5th grade, I had a friend, Karen, who had a Mandy doll just like me. She also had a mother who loved to sew. One day we were at her house playing with our Mandy dolls, when we went into her mother’s sewing room. I was horrified how much junk was all over the place until I saw this wonderful mountain of fabric in one corner. I was in heaven. I couldn’t believe anyone could have so much. Then her mother offered to sew two sport bags for our dolls. We sat and watched with amazement as her adept fingers and noisy sewing machine turned some brown scraps of suede into two little Mandy bags that fit perfectly under our dolls’ arms. I couldn’t have been happier. I will never forget that time and how it inspired me to sew. I was so amazed how she turned something so ordinary and unwanted into something I treasured for a long tome afterward. Oh gosh, could this have been the beginning of my bagaholic problem??

My mom is also crazy about dolls. So poor Alida, who happens to be the only girl out of 9 grandchildren, has to love dolls, too.
Luckily, she does. Here are just a few of the babies we have around to play with, and believe me, we do.

The first one is my Raggedy Ann doll from when I was little. When I was around 8, my sister’s good friend gave her to me when she came to live with us for the summer . I’ve always loved my Raggedy Ann doll. Her apron is floating around here somewhere.

The big baby picture is a doll that my mom and I bought back when I first moved to Germany because she looked so real. I took her home and filled her fabric stomach with plastic pellets to make her as heavy as a real baby. On the way home in the airplane, I carried her around like a real baby and you should have seen the reactions I got! I was given a seat in a crowded bus, and one man said he’d pay me to drop it on the floor just to see what the people would do. People sure are sick, aren’t they?? Of course, I didn’t do it, although the thought was tempting.

Alexander and I went skiing every day, and much to my excitement, he told me he’s found his new favorite sport. I’m so excited. The first day was tough with him, he’s a very scared kind of kid, but after about an hour he was on his own, doing everything really well.
Martin went skiing with us for a day and after watching me teach him a bit, Alexander started doing the same things. Yesterday he started paralleling-as well as a 4-year-old can. We even went skiing in the morning for two hours before we left, so we could get 10 more runs in.
I’m just so proud!! Can you tell? I have about 50 more pictures of him skiing but I thought I’d give you all a break and just show you these. Look at that little Michelin Man on skis!

After Martin and Alida went sledding on the first day, they sat for a while to watch us ski. Alida kept telling us she wanted to ski too, but we decided she’s not quite ready to start skiing yet, so we’ll be torturing her next year. Hehe

* Have I told you what really intrigued Alexander? The numbers on the T-bar lift and the mechanics of the lift itself. Have I mentioned that Alexander loves anything technical and anything that has to do with numbers? We went to two slopes and he knew the number of the T-bar every time we went up. This picture is for him.